Do you think there’s room on the Internet for startups that aren’t the product of a programmer’s brain? I do. But some things need to change. Way back in 2008, Bernard Lunn of ReadWriteWeb wrote about his vision for the near future of the Web in a brilliant three-part series in which he said:
The Main Street Web is about people who don’t care about technology or media, they just use it. Above all it is about really simple business models that work in the physical world as well as online world. The Main Street Web will empower small business and level the playing field with big business.
He talked mostly about how usage would become more mainstream, but in my article, You Can’t Launch the Next Generation of Internet Startups Without Women, I suggest that startup founders with viable ideas are likely to start coming from the mainstream too, and that they might be better able to meet the needs and address the interests of an aging and increasingly diverse population of Internet users.
It’s time for the puppet masters to start looking at paper projects again, like they did in the old days. The way publishing houses look at manuscripts.
Filed under: web life, web trends , startuppity
February 16, 2010 • 7:31 pm
I’m not wild about list posts. Apparently I’m the only one, because I’ve never heard anybody else complain about them, and blogs great and small are overflowing with “ten ways to [whatever]” posts. They’re generally quite popular, too.
Frankly, I think they’re a symptom of laziness on the part of writers and readers alike. But I do have to admit that with all the info we have to process these days, they’re sometimes better than nothing. It’s true that, as Umberto Eco (who loves lists, BTW, and is no slouch) says, they “make infinity comprehensible.” I guess people can always dig deeper into a subject if they want something they can sink their teeth into. I wonder how many do.
Anyway, you gotta do what you gotta do, and I’ve been known to write a list post or two in my day. In fact, the last two I wrote for Web Worker Daily were just that: 5 Japanese words that start with S, and 3 words uttered by Mel Gibson that start with E (and might help you get a content strategy, which you should do).
Filed under: language, tech writing, web trends , blogging, content strategy, online identity, personal branding, tips, words
February 9, 2010 • 4:54 pm
I went to my first Geek Girl Party in Paris, which was masterfully organized by Sandrine Camus, founder of GamonGirls and the woman behind the Paris Girl Geek Dinners. The party wasn’t quite what I expected. I thought it would be a feminine version of all the tech networking/social events I normally attend, most of which are about startups. But I never saw a business card exchange hands at the girly geek party, and I got the impression it wasn’t serious.
The male-dominated geek events I go to manage to be serious and fun, but the all-girl party was just fun. Also, at the boy parties, everybody is buzzing around talking to strangers, like puppies who run to sniff the shoes of the person they don’t recognize. Where the boys will assertively work the room in search of serendipitous synergies, the girls stood around in their cliques and ignored anyone they didn’t know. I felt like I’d been transported back to high school.
Having a geek girl party is a great idea, unless the only purpose of it is for corporate sponsors to sell you pink tech gadgets. If girl geeks want to be taken seriously, they have to learn how to do fun and serious. Like the boys. And they need to ask for more than free panties and pancake mix…
I highly recommend this French geekette’s insightful and entertaining post on the party.
Filed under: tech events, web life , fun, grrls
January 28, 2010 • 8:10 pm
There is a common theme to the last two posts I wrote for Web Worker Daily (which has a spiffy new design, BTW, check it out). One was about how to use a great little app called Tweepi to manage all your followers and followees on Twitter, and the other was about what to do when you are in over your head on a project. I seem to write about managing chaos a lot. Hmmm… I am feeling very fatigued.
Speaking of fatigue, I saw the expression “social media fatigue” for the first time in a while the other day, just a few days after announcing to my husband “I’m bored with the Internet and Twitter right now.” Maybe that’s what I’ve got.
And of course, with what’s happened in Haiti, the expression “compassion fatigue” is on my mind, especially since I can’t seem to inspire even 188 Francophilia members to donate five bucks each to reach my $1,000 donation goal for earthquake relief. Inspiring is hard work. It’s making me tired. They must be fatigued too…
Filed under: apps, social media, web life , Francophilia, tools, words
December 18, 2009 • 10:28 am
Of all the terms I’ve heard to describe people who can work anywhere there’s wi-fi, my favorite is nomadic workers. There’s something exciting and mysterious and all Lawrence of Arabia about it.
De tous les appellations que j’ai entendues pour parler des personnes qui travaillent partout où il y a du wi-fi, ma préférée est la nomade attitude. Il y a quelque chose de Lawrence d’Arabie dans cette expression-là, du mystère, de l’intrigue.
London-based nomads now have WorkSnug, a sexy, brand-new augmented reality app for the iPhone that points them directly to work-friendly spaces with wi-fi in their vicinity.
Les londoniens qui ont la nomade attitude ont accès à WorkSnug, une application iPhone en réalité augmentée qui leur indique les espaces conviviaux avec un accès wi-fi à proximité.
Now they’re working on the Paris version of WorkSnug, and I get to do the research.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: apps, web life , startuppity, tools
December 5, 2009 • 7:11 pm
I’ve just created a Facebook group for women startup founders and management. Just a few weeks ago, I started talking to The Next Women in London about doing some blogging and interviews for them. To do that, I need access to women entrepreneurs. So I took the plunge and created Fondatrix.
It’s something I’ve been thinking of doing for a while now. You see, I’ve been on the web/tech/startup circuit for a couple years here in Paris, and the girlpreneurs are just not visible enough IMHO. And I have a very good idea about why that is… Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: social media, tech events, web life , fun, grrls, startuppity
November 17, 2009 • 3:20 pm
Do you have a content strategy for your own social media presence? If you’re a professional, you probably should. Too many small business/startup blogs and Twitter feeds are too inwardly focused, all about features and updates or the founder’s views and activities.
I give some tips for getting a plan and making your content valuable in my Web Worker Daily article Taking Content Strategy Personally.
Don’t know what content strategy is? Find out in Paris next April at Content Strategy Forum 2010, “for anyone who develops, manages, or delivers content within their own organization or for their clients: user experience designers, information architects, business analysts, technical writers, web project managers, documentation managers, translators, web marketers, practicing content strategists, and those looking to break into the field.”
Filed under: social media, tech events, web life, web trends , content strategy, online identity
November 7, 2009 • 7:20 pm
I rarely try out a new site without being highly conscious of my own user experience. That’s what happens when you’ve been in startup Lala Land for a few years, write for a tech blog, and are married to a UI design expert.
Read my post Online seduction on frogblog, about being a conscious user (but mostly about how I was seduced by Squiz, and their anti-business cards).
Filed under: apps, web life , Francophilia, fun, grrls, IRL, personal branding, toys
October 27, 2009 • 9:59 am
Why am I always so shocked when I meet people who, for example, don’t know what Twitter is? (And this happened the other day in Paris, not the Amazon rainforest…) Sometimes we Internet types need a reality check.
Here’s a post I wrote for Web Worker Daily just as a reminder that there are lots of people who live mostly in the brick & mortar universe. There are more of them, in fact, than there are of us:
Filed under: web life, web trends
October 20, 2009 • 8:25 am
I admit I’m compulsive and neurotic about some things. Like recycling. I recycle everything, even the little paper envelopes my teabags come in. (And then agonize about what tea plantations have done to developing countries, the carbon emissions to ship the tea, the fact that so many resources go into creating something that is essentially a non-food. Although it does have anti-oxidants. Then I vow to quit. Almost every day.). You see what I mean by neurotic?
Anyway, I wrote a couple of green-leaning posts for Web Worker Daily recently that I thought I’d share:
Filed under: web life
August 29, 2009 • 12:51 pm
Everybody seems to have at least two cents to contribute to the apparently endless discussion of online identity (or personal branding, or e-reputation, or whatever you want to call it). I have plenty to say about it too; I even give talks on the topic. And since personal branding was the theme on Web Worker Daily last month, I contributed two articles that you might find interesting. Or not. But I do talk about Big Bird and pastries in an attempt to keep you from being too bored…
Filed under: social media, web life, web trends , online identity, personal branding
August 15, 2009 • 8:51 am
Everybody who knows me knows I’m a champion of French startups: on my own blogs, on Web Worker Daily, and IRL. But I’m on the verge of being really pissed off. There’s a French startup that owes me around 300 Euros for a translation I did, and they’re six months late paying…
The merde is about to hit the ventilateur.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: social media, translation, web life , funding, startuppity
…I’ve spent a few years with my finger on the racing pulse of the Web and I’ll tell you what. There’s a whole lot of crap out there. There are so many utterly ridiculous concepts that have managed to find programmers and investors, so many brain-wasters helping to speed along the decline and fall of Western civilization… We could be doing so much better. It can get depressing sometimes. But the reality is just this, and it will never change:
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: social media, web life, web trends , Francophilia, startuppity
This week I’m launching an e-commerce site to accompany Francophilia, the social network for francophiles I founded. It’s running on the Zlio platform. It has some limitations, but I’m pretty happy to be able to offer my francophile members one-stop shopping for French and French-themed products!
Just found out my personal blog, frogblog, is ranked 42 of all blogs in the “France” category according to invesp consulting. And I’m in some pretty good company! But you know what they say about stats.
Got my blogging pass for LeWeb ‘09. I’ll be there for Web Worker Daily again this year. I discovered some exciting startups to write about there in ‘08.
I have a new dog. Well, actually, he’s a “used” dog. I even wrote about one of the reasons why someone with my lifestyle should get a dog on Web Worker Daily the other day. It was published on the day I got him from the shelter! His name is Wiley. But we also call him Firefox because he looks like a fox. And, of course, we are Firefox fans.
I got an iPhone! Like Wiley, it’s used — Vincent gave me his 2G when he got a 3GS. I spent Saturday morning playing with it in bed…
Filed under: social media, tech events, web life , blogging, Francophilia, Geeks In Love, toys
It was sheer delight translating Claire Ulrich’s article Les Censeurs du Net, originally published in Le Monde 2.
In Internet history, 1994-2004 was the era of the pioneers. 2004-2007 was the era of the merchants. Now we’re entering the era of the bullies. Everywhere in the world, sites are going dark, arrests are increasing, more people are going to prison. The Web just celebrated its 20th birthday. Nobody used to take it seriously, but those days are gone. Read the rest…
Almost as much fun as translating her lyrical Plus belle, ma vie en ligne for Kiva (not available on line, but I will send you a PDF if you wish).
Filed under: language, translation, web trends
